A friend in Liverpool: How an international student ambassador helped me

Posted on: 22 April 2019 by Nombu and Tomkeen in 2020

Tomkeen was one of the student ambassadors who advised Nombu on life in Liverpool before she arrived. Here they share their experiences of the university's ambassador chat service and how it could help you!

Olayinka: I was swept by a flood of excitement after getting a conditional offer to study at The University of Liverpool but at the same time confused. I had a lorry load of questions that would influence my decision to accept or reject the offer- some of which I felt were dumb to ask a university official over emails.

To my relief, about a week later an International Student Ambassador, Tomkeen, reached out to me via phone calls. Although I was unavailable, he went ahead to send me an email, giving the assurance that he is available to provide recommendations to any question I had about the University or life as a University student in Liverpool. My questions were around my conditional offer, CAS statement, student jobs and most importantly student accommodation.

Going by the advice of the student ambassador, I was able to confidently accept my offer and secure the student accommodation I currently reside in through the Liverpool Student Homes. 

Nombu: I first interacted with Tomkeen through the connect campaign run by Liverpool University. He had tried to reach out to me twice through WhatsApp but our schedules kept clashing. When we finally spoke it was a god-sent. I had several offers across the UK and in the Netherlands (all very good schools) but ultimately speaking to a student, especially from my home country, made the university more accessible to me. This allowed me to raise concerns that are unrelated to the academic credentials of the schools, such as accommodation, living costs, how to get from the airport to my accommodation. As an international student, moving to a new country all alone, I wanted an institutional that is concerned with making my transition as smooth as possible and University of Liverpool’s connect campaign did that for me. Plus I had the added bonus of making a new friend even before I landed. 

I met Tomkeen at Manchester Airport as soon as I landed. It was really nice to have a friendly face and Tomkeen was always very responsive in asking all my questions. This motivated me to want to become an International Student Ambassador to help other international students looking to come to the University of Liverpool.